


Corruption

by Lightheaded_Dullahan



Series: Corrosive Grail [1]
Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Blood and Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-18 21:32:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16525052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lightheaded_Dullahan/pseuds/Lightheaded_Dullahan
Summary: “Have you come to ridicule me in this state?“Mocking a mockery would be a waste of time.”





	Corruption

**Author's Note:**

> Quick little notice, this is using the assumption that pakozerker is Arjuna Alter. Since neither Karna or Arjuna have a confirmed Alter (even taking in account Arjuna's Black/Krishna personality), I'm winging it with their personalities.

When Berserker finds him, he’s in no position to fight. What was left of his Kavacha has been cut off manually, something that should no longer be necessary as a heroic spirit. His Kundala has been chopped off along with part of his earlobe. He’s barely lucid, nearly passed out over the half-wall. Even if Berserker hadn’t been tracking him, the immense blood trail would give away his location to a blind man. The servant has the gale to smirk at him, even now when he could barely stand.

“Well, if it isn’t Berse-,” He’s caught off by the bloody vomit that rises up and lands right in front of him, “-rker.”

“Have you come to ridicule me in this state?

“Mocking a mockery would be a waste of time.”

He lets out a breathless laugh, blood drips from his lips just as it does from the open wounds on his body. Berserker isn’t sure if that black tar on his skin is torn clothing or torn skin. One of Saber’s swords is still protruding out of his abdomen. Assassin’s blades were buried in his legs, some were in so deep that it should have been impossible for him to move anymore. His eyes were no longer blackened, but Berserker was sure he was just as mad as before. 

“Haaa...how disappointing, you avoid me all this time and this is what I get in the end? Just some cold stare?”

Berserker watched as the other servant pushed himself up from the wall, the weapons embedded in him shift just as he does. He’s not sure what class Karna is supposed to be in this corrupted form, he could be a Lancer, an Archer, or a Rider. While he had seen him use a bow, that was no surefire indication of his class. Karna had no weapons anymore, not after his master commanded all his weapons be given to her brother’s servant. That servant was long dead now, he knew this as he was the one who killed their master. He never saw the servant, no, their master was a horrid person and needed to be dealt with. 

Karna’s master had gone into hiding after that. She must have used her second command to ensure he would distract the other servants. Berserker wanted to rid the world of her as well. Even with his wish to kill the corrupted hero across from him, she was worse than that insane demigod. From what he heard from Assassin, what she forced upon Caster’s master made her servant appear as a holy Ruler. 

He’s dragged himself over to Berserker, every step adds more to the blood trail. He stops far too close to the other servant, the smell of rusted iron is even more prominent now that it was before. Karna grips the hilt of the sword and drags the blade out, bringing with it parts of his intestines with stomach acid dripping down the edge as the hole where the sword was once seethed grew larger as he pulled. He drops it at Berserker’s feet and falls back into a puddle of his own blood. 

“Give that back to Saber when you see her.”

Berserker scowled down at the other servant. Was he so far gone as to not realize what was happening? He stepped forward and hoisted him up by his arm. A small splash was heard as he gave a lopsided smile. His left leg from the knee down was laying on the floor nearly a foot below him. It was melting into a black sludge and mixing with the red blood pooling around it. How disgusting. He stepped on the leg and saw what was left of Karna’s leg twitch. Ah, so even though it was no longer connected it could still affect the main body. 

Karna was dropped against the wall, his eyes were staring at something unseeable. Blood was coughed up once more, dribbling down his chin onto his lap. His legs were melting away. He giggled in a state of madness, his nerves had been completely eaten away by the mud days ago so he felt nothing as his limbs turned into the very mud he had been forced into. His mind had already been fractured when he was summoned, but now he could barely recall anything. It was like his brain was being boiled inside his skull.

In a moment of clarity, or what he could consider clarity now, he realized Berserker had not yet used his Noble Phantasm. For someone who wished to destroy evil, he was certainly taking his time in killing him. 

“Are you low on mana or some-” more blood came up, it continued to surprise him just how much blood he had in him or maybe it was just sludge now, “-thing? Aaa, you haven’t killed me yet.”

Berserker didn’t respond. Karna was correct, he had already used his Noble Phantasm once to kill that master and his unseen servant. His own master was in no condition to supply him with more mana at the moment. He had planned to wait Karna out until his mana reserves fizzled out and he would either die of mana depletion or seek out another mana source. By then, he would be too weak to do much and would be easy to take out. It didn’t look like he had to wait long at this rate until his reserves were used up. 

The melting servant placed a clawed hand around the gem in his chest. It still shined brightly as if the body it was attached to was never corrupted in the first place. Something clicked inside his boiling mind. Berserker looked over at him to see the clawed hand trying to dig the gem out of the chest. When one hand proved ineffective, he used both to carve out around the red gemstone. The gem came loose with part of his ribcage, the bone dropping into the mud of what was once his legs. Connected to the red stone was his beating heart.

He offered the organ to the other servant who sneered in disgust. There was no way he would eat something so repugnant. Berserker would have smacked the thing away if he had a desire to dirty his hands with the heart of an evil in the world. 

“Eh, don’t look at it like that. It doesn’t look dirty, there’s no mud on it. You need the mana and I get to die.”

Was he so desperate to die that he would give his enemy free mana, even if it was through a revolting method? His mind must have been completely gone if he was considering this. He was not Karna the Hero of Charity, he was Karna the Avatar of Greed. The corrupted version of a man who walked down the wrong path. 

“Take it or kill me quickly.”

His arm has to be held steady by his other hand, much of his energy was being used to stop his arms from melting away. He grits his teeth as his brain begins to boil more, it’s almost as if it's melting like his body. His other organs are beginning to heat up now, his lungs are dripping down onto his stomach and liver. His stomach acid is eating away at his muscle and skin. 

“Why are you doing this?”

“There’s no chance I’ll be able to get my wish now, and my master is a bitch. I’ll cut my losses here and ask you to use the mana to kill her too.”

“...What is your wish?”

“Get rid of this static between my head and my memories. Maybe even get back to normal. I can’t recall.”

So it seemed Berserker had been correct in his assumption. This was an abnormal alter, he had no memory of who he was nor of who he knew. Perhaps that is why he made no sign of recognizing him when they met. He was barely Karna. He was an anomaly of evil that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

He plucked the heart from the servant’s hand, the arm fell in chunks to the floor where it mixed with the sludge and blood. Karna leaned back to rest on the wall, his left hand began to melt once he let it drop to the floor. It felt almost familiar to give up something while knowing it would spell his end. Almost, if it hadn’t been for the feeling of his brain dripping from out his ears. 

“Do you recall who I am?”

It’s silent. He can’t tell if there was a form of recognition in those dead gold eyes now. Maybe his mind was too far gone now to even recognize anything. Maybe he simply had no ability to.

“▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊▊.”

His throat has been eaten by the mud, he had no more energy to fight the corruption as he started to disappear. Berserker bit into the heart in his hand. As he ate the organ bit by bit, he could feel his mana reserves refill quickly. The leftover blood dripped down his chin as he chewed up the muscle. He licked up the drops that rolled down his hand and arm. 

By the time he finished and only the gem remained, Karna was nothing more than a collection of blood and mud. The ruby-like stone turned into nothing but gold dust. Berserker’s mana reserves were nearly three times above his normal amount now, he could easily use his Noble Phantasm a couple of times before he would need to recharge. He accepted the act of cannibalism under the guise it was for the greater good, he would use the energy gained to rid the world of evil now.

 

But first, he had to deal with the mess around him.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this angst or just gore? I don't know.
> 
>  
> 
> ~~I also don't know how I feel about the characterization here...~~


End file.
